Time Rip
by lastincurableromantic
Summary: The Time Lords send the Doctor and Jo to repair a rip in the fabric of time and space.


**a/n: This is a story I wrote years ago for a competition. In an effort to get myself back into writing, I decided to clean it up a bit and post it. Thanks to Kelkat9 for beta-ing it when I originally wrote it, and one line in it is hers.**

* * *

 **Time Rip**

"Miss Grant, have you seen the Doctor?"

Sergeant John Benton stood in the doorway of the laboratory that had been assigned to the Doctor in UNIT headquarters. Unlike the military order that characterized everywhere else on the compound, the Doctor's laboratory was usually a study in chaos with high tech equipment and alien artifacts haphazardly filling the small room. Interspersed with pieces of the TARDIS console were things like dinosaur teeth as big as a man's hand, iridescent scales from some sort of reptile that were even larger than the teeth, and rocks that rang like bells when they were struck with a hammer.

And then there were the science experiments that covered a workbench on the far side of the lab. Stoppered test tubes filled with a yellow gas and interconnected with plastic tubing competed for space with Petrie dishes containing what looked to be some sort of purple mold growing in them and mirrors set up in series and arranged to reflect a beam of light through a slit in a piece of black paper. To Benton, however, the most interesting of the experiments was an Ehrlenmeyer flask containing a fluorescent green liquid that boiled furiously over an unlit Bunsen burner.

Today the clutter in the lab was even worse than normal. Bits and bobs of electronics and half-dismantled equipment lay on every horizontal surface—shelves, workbenches, chairs, even the floor—but as he was used to the room often looking like a bomb had gone off in it, Benton hardly noticed the difference.

In the middle of the chaos Jo Grant, the Doctor's assistant, sat on the edge of a large wooden desk, swinging her feet back and forth and reading the latest issue of a popular fashion magazine, completely unbothered by the mess surrounding her. Although she was technically a member of UNIT, she looked as unmilitary as they come wearing a bright yellow top paired with a matching miniskirt and shiny white patent leather knee high boots. Her strawberry-blonde hair wasn't regulation either, as she wore it hanging loose about her shoulders rather than up in a neat bun at the nape of her neck. Benton thought the look suited her far better than the uniforms worn by the rest of the staff including himself.

At the sound of his voice, Jo looked up and showered him with a bright smile. Then she placed one fingertip over her lips and made a shushing sound.

Benton carefully made his way across the room, dodging some large metal things that looked like pieces of a jet engine on his way over to her. "The Brigadier's looking for him," he continued in a low voice. He gingerly moved a few things that were laying on the desk over a few inches and sat down next to her.

Jo jerked her head in the direction of the tall, blue Police Box that stood in the corner of the room. "He's in the TARDIS, repairing something or other on the control panel," she told him quietly. "He thinks that now the Time Lords have allowed him to use the TARDIS occasionally, he can fix it so he can travel without them interfering. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone where he is. He wants to be left alone."

As she was speaking, Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart strode into the room with purpose in his step. "Miss Grant, have you seen the Doctor or Sergeant Benton?"

At the sound of his commanding officer's voice, Benton immediately leapt up from his seat on the desk and snapped to attention. Jo bit her lip, trying to hide a smile at the sergeant's reaction.

"Ah, Benton, there you are," the Brigadier said when he spotted the younger man. "Have you located the Doctor?"

"I was just asking Miss Grant where he was, sir," Benton replied, still standing stiffly at attention.

Jo jerked her head again at the TARDIS. "Oh, I don't know where he is," she said loudly in an overly innocent tone.

With that, the sound of a small explosion emanated from the TARDIS, and the Doctor stumbled out of the door amid a cloud of white smoke. He waved a hand in front of his face in an attempt to clear the air in front of him as he coughed.

The Brigadier raised one eyebrow. "Things not going well, Doctor?"

"Perfectly satisfactory, Brigadier," said the Doctor. "Right on schedule. Ahead of schedule, in fact." He coughed again and began to pat down his scarlet smoking jacket. A jacket that was currently living up to its name. With every strike of his hand, smoke and dust rose into the air.

"Indeed," the Brigadier replied. "Well, if that's the case, Geneva is hosting a meeting of the European Heads of State, and I need you to give a speech briefing them on the state of our readiness in the face of an alien attack."

"A speech?" the Doctor asked in disbelief. "You want me to give a speech? No, absolutely not. I won't waste a single moment speaking in front of a bunch of stuffed shirt bureaucrats who don't know up from down when I could be spending my time working on the TARDIS."

"Now, see here, Doctor," the Brigadier began.

"No, my mind's made up," the Doctor said dismissively. He turned away from him and began to sort through the equipment on the workbench, muttering to himself as he picked up each item in turn. "No, that's the right shape, but the wrong size."

"Doctor…" the Brigadier began.

"And this one's the right size, but the wrong shape," the Doctor said, holding a short glass cylinder up to the light to examine it before setting it back on the workbench.

"Doctor…" the Brigadier repeated, this time more firmly.

The Doctor continued to ignore him and picked up a long, thin bolt with wires sprouting out of one end. Searching for a moment longer, he found a metal box with a small hole in the side and compared the size of the bolt with the hole. He nodded decisively, apparently satisfied. "Jo, do me a favor, would you, and go and fetch me the retrograde Walusian spanner. I need to connect these two pieces together. "

Jo gave him a confused look. "But I don't…" she protested.

"Sure you do. It's a long, silver rod with a red handle." He looked up at her and winked.

"Oh, _that_ spanner," she said. "I know which one it is. I'll go and get it." She jumped off the desk and entered the TARDIS while the Doctor returned to sorting through the pieces of equipment.

"Now, Doctor," the Brigadier said, raising his voice, "about that speech—"

"Absolutely not," the Doctor replied. He set the box and the bolt back down on the workbench and began to sort through the items on the desk.

"Doctor," Jo called from within the TARDIS. "Doctor, I can't find it."

"It's sitting on top of the console," he called back.

"It's not there," she insisted.

"Sorry, Brigadier, I've got to go and help her find it." He turned and quickly strode back into the TARDIS.

"Doctor, we're not finished with this yet…"

The Doctor's head popped back out of the doorway. "Oh yes, we are," he told him with a grin, and he slammed the door shut.

"Doctor! I absolutely forbid you to take off in that thing!" the Brigadier commanded.

The TARDIS began to make its familiar metal-on-metal groaning as the engines started up, and it slowly faded from sight. Standing behind the Brigadier, Sergeant Benton began to grin.

"And you can wipe that smirk off your face, Sergeant," the Brigadier continued without turning.

"Yes, sir," Benton replied.

The Brigadier let out a heavy sigh. "Well, if the Doctor's not going to make the address… Benton, contact Miss Shaw. Maybe she can tear herself away from her research long enough to take the Doctor's place."

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was still crossing the room to join Jo at the console when the Time Rotor began to move slowly up and down.

"Jo, what did you touch?" he demanded. He quickly closed the distance between them and scanned the controls.

"Nothing!" she insisted. He looked up sharply at her. "Honest!"

Scowling, he took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. "Well, that can mean only one thing." At her questioning look he continued. "The Time Lords," he told her. "They must be remotely controlling the TARDIS again."

"What could they want this time?" she asked.

"I have no idea," he said. "But whatever they want, I have no intention of cooperating."

As they spoke, the Time Rotor slowed to a stop, and the TARDIS landed with a loud thud.

"Well, wherever they're sending us, we've arrived," she said. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, and I don't care," he said petulantly.

"But surely you must be a little curious."

"Not in the slightest," he told her with a sniff.

"Well, I want to go see. It's not often a girl gets to visit an entirely different planet, after all." Jo headed towards the door to the outside but then stopped before she had gotten halfway there. She turned back to him. "It is safe out there, isn't it?"

"Safe?" he asked.

"Yes, safe," she said. "Breathable air, nothing that would try to eat me, that sort of thing."

With a heavy sigh, he flipped a switch on the console and glanced at a series of readings that appeared on a nearby screen. "Air is breathable, and according to this, the only life signs within a five mile radius are for vegetation. Should be safe enough."

"Good," she said, relieved. "Then I'm going to take a look. Sure you don't want to come?"

"No," he said flatly. "They've got to learn I'm not their errand boy that they can send hither and yon to do their bidding. I'm not stepping a foot out there." And then his expression and his tone softened. "You go ahead, Jo," he urged with a small smile for her. "I'll be waiting for you when you get back."

She nodded and returned his smile before rushing out the door.

The TARDIS had landed in the middle of a meadow filled with wildflowers. They were in full bloom, turning the field into a riot of color—pink and yellow and orange and violet—and filling the air with their heady perfume. Nearby, perhaps only a dozen yards away, were a series of boulders, some lying lengthwise on the ground, others standing on end, but all large enough to tower overhead. From where she stood, Jo had an incredible view of the surrounding vista of lush green valleys, winding rivers, and snow-capped mountains covered in alpine forests.

"Gorgeous," she murmured. "Simply gorgeous."

Smiling, she waded into the sea of wildflowers in front of her, only stopping when she was some distance away from the TARDIS. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tilted her head back and inhaled deeply, enjoying the sweet scent of the flowers in the air, the warmth of the sun on her face, the slightly cool breeze on her skin.

Perfectly content, she opened her eyes. And screamed.

At the sound of Jo's cry, the Doctor rushed out of the TARDIS and across the field, his vow not to step foot on the planet forgotten. When she saw him, she pointed up.

High overhead, in the middle of the otherwise clear blue sky was what appeared to be an open mouth, a gaping maw trying to swallow the planet. Instead of lips, flames in white, yellow and red burned around its jagged edge while the inky black of its center looked somehow darker than any black Jo had ever seen before.

"What is it?" Jo's voice wavered slightly despite her best attempt to keep it steady.

"That is why the Time Lords sent us here," he said gravely. "It's a Time Rip: a tear in the fabric of space and time, an opening into the Void between universes. And it's growing. If it isn't stopped soon, it will keep on getting bigger and bigger until the entire cosmos unravels."

"It's absolutely frightening," Jo said. "And the black… it looks…wrong somehow."

"That's an instinctive response to the Void," he told her. "The mind doesn't want to accept anything that is outside our reality as the Void is. Even I'm somewhat affected by it."

Jo's eyes widened at the admission. The Doctor rarely if ever admitted to some sort of weakness.

"Why is it burning?" she asked.

"Because it's beginning to enter the atmosphere of this planet, and the friction of the atmospheric gases on the edges of the Rip are setting the edges on fire," he told her.

"Oh! Kind of like the reentry of a spaceship!"

"Not exactly, but a good analogy just the same," he said. "The Time Lords obviously want us to fix it, but for the life of me I don't know how we can. If it were smaller we could use the TARDIS to stitch it up, so to speak, by creating a time loop around it."

"Like sewing the sides together so it didn't get worse, right?" Jo asked.

"Very good," he told her. "Exactly right. We'd pull the edges of the time loop tight, mending it temporarily, bringing the edges of the rip together which would allow the hole to heal itself. But something this large would require more than just one TARDIS to fix it. We'd need at least two, one on either side of it working in tandem." He scanned the surrounding area. "However I don't see another TARDIS around."

"Perhaps you haven't been looking hard enough," came a voice from behind them. "Or perhaps you've forgotten how to identify one that has a working chameleon circuit."

The Doctor and Jo turned as one. Behind them, leaning against one of the upright boulders, stood a man nattily dressed in a dark charcoal grey suit with a high Mandarin collar. His greying hair was slicked back and his beard and mustache neatly trimmed.

"The Master," Jo gasped.

"Miss Grant." The Master acknowledged her with an almost imperceptible incline of his head and walked over to join them.

"Doctor, I thought you said there weren't any signs of anything but plants here," Jo said.

"If he did a scan, he wouldn't have seen me while I was in my TARDIS," the Master told her with a jerk of his head at the boulder behind him. "That's assuming he even knows how to do a scan, of course. With the Doctor, that's nowhere near a certainty."

"I suppose you're responsible for this," the Doctor accused with a gesture at the Rip overhead. "What's your plan, to use the Time Rip to blackmail the universe into putting you in charge or something?"

"I wish I could take credit," the Master replied coolly. "But unfortunately I have nothing to do with it. If I did, do you really think I'd be standing around here waiting for it to consume the planet we're on?"

"Hmm, perhaps not," the Doctor said. "So why are you here?''

"The Time Lords took over my TARDIS just as they did yours. I arrived only moments before you did. Those meddling fools evidently want me to help you repair the Rip."

The Doctor snorted. "And you expect me to believe that?"

"Believe it or don't. It makes no difference to me," the Master answered. "But if that Rip isn't repaired soon, this entire planet will be consumed, followed by the solar system."

"And the more it consumes, the faster it will grow until it finally rips apart the entire cosmos," the Doctor added.

"But Doctor, can we really trust him to help repair it?" Jo asked. "I mean, you have to admit he hasn't been exactly helpful in the past."

"He _is_ more likely to cause problems than solve them," the Doctor agreed. He frowned and rubbed his chin as he looked at the other Time Lord appraisingly. With an arched eyebrow, the Master met his gaze.

"Oh, the Doctor can trust me, Miss Grant," the Master answered without looking at her. "And what's more, he knows it."

After a moment, the Doctor nodded grudgingly. "Motivated self-interest, Jo," he explained. "If he really is stuck here as he says he is, it's in his own best interest to get this repaired as quickly as possible, or he'll be consumed along with the planet."

"And us," Jo added.

"And if there's one thing he wants more than universal domination, it's to save his own hide," the Doctor said. "Why don't you head back to the TARDIS, Jo, while he and I work out a strategy to handle this."

Jo bit her lip and glanced nervously over at the Master, who was watching the interchange in amusement. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked. "Alone here, with him?"

The Doctor smiled at her. "I'll be fine. I've been dealing with him for centuries. Now, off you go."

With one more suspicious glance at the Master, Jo returned to the TARDIS, leaving the door open behind her.

"Touching," the Master said sarcastically. "Did she really think she could protect you from me?"

"Don't underestimate her," the Doctor said. "She's made of stronger stuff than she appears to be. And she's got a good heart, which is more than I can say about you."

Ignoring the insult, the Master glanced up at the sky. "So, how shall we do this?"

"We'll need to link our consoles together from either side of the Rip. One of us will have to stay here while the other will have to take his TARDIS to the other side," the Doctor answered. "That will be me."

"Why you?"

"If the Time Lords have brought us here to repair the Rip, I believe they'll have released control of one of our TARDISes so we can do it. But despite my assertion to Jo, I don't trust you as far as I could throw you, and I am certain the other Time Lords don't either," he said. "Of the two of us, I'm far more trustworthy."

The Master nodded. "Undoubtedly. That has always been your greatest failing," he said, his voice dripping with disdain.

"And your undeveloped sense of morality is yours," the Doctor retorted. They glared at one another until a blinding flash overhead distracted them. They both looked up. The flames around the border of the tear shot out into the surrounding space only to arc back and rejoin the edge of the rip, creating burning arches clearly visible from the ground. "It's growing more quickly than I anticipated it would. Well, if we're going to do this, we best get started before that thing gets any bigger. I'll contact you once I'm on the other side of the Rip."

The Doctor began to walk back to his TARDIS, but before he could get there, the TARDIS door closed. "Jo?" he called.

The light on the roof of the TARDIS began to flash, accompanied by the loud groaning of dematerialization, and as he and the Master watched, the TARDIS faded from view.

The Master chuckled. "Apparently the Time Lords don't consider you trustworthy either."

"They must have thought I'd gone back inside when Jo did," the Doctor said. He huffed in irritation. "Now what?"

"Come now, Doctor," the Master said. "This isn't Spatial-Temporal Variability Science. Just hit the recall button on your TARDIS remote control." When the Doctor didn't respond, the Master began to laugh. "You don't have one, do you?"

"Making one is on my to-do list," the Doctor snapped.

"Then you'll just have to recall her manually from my control room," the Master said. "You do know how to do that, don't you?"

"Yes, of course I do! I just…" The Doctor's voice trailed off.

"Just what?" The Master stared at him, and then began to laugh again when realization struck. "You don't know your TARDIS's control codes, do you?" When the Doctor didn't answer, didn't even look at him, the Master smirked. "Oh, it would appear this inconvenient and insulting errand has a bright side after all: my enjoyment of your obvious ineptitude and failure at the very basics of Time Travel!"

The Doctor opened his mouth to retort when a blinding flash interrupted him, this time accompanied by a sonic boom. They both looked up. As they watched, the Rip expanded, doubling in size. This was followed by another boom.

"Well, I hope that your Miss Grant is as good as you say she is," the Master said, "because if you can't get your TARDIS back, our success may very well depend on her."

Inside the TARDIS, Jo jumped when the door slammed shut behind her, and the Time Rotor started to move again.

"Oh, no, no, no," she said. After trying to use the controls on the console to open the door, to no avail, she rushed to the door and tried to jerk it open. Despite her best efforts, it stayed stubbornly closed. She began to pound on it, trying to get the Doctor's attention. "Doctor! Doctor, it's moving! The TARDIS is moving!"

After it was clear to her that she was in flight and would stay that way, she looked up at the ceiling.

"Please, take me back," she pleaded, hoping the Time Lords were monitoring the control room and could hear her. "The Doctor's not here, and I don't know how to work this thing."

She didn't really expect an answer, and so she wasn't surprised when she didn't get one.

She took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. "Okay," she said to herself. "There's no way I'd be able to fly this thing, but maybe I can figure out how to send out a distress signal."

As the Time Rotor slowed to a stop, Jo crossed back to the console and stared at the controls, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The controls consisted of numerous buttons and switches, dials and flashing lights, none of which were labeled. Or if they were, they weren't labeled in any way she could read.

"Oh, this is hopeless!" she groaned.

Just as she was about to give up, she heard the Doctor's voice calling her.

"Jo! Jo! Are you there?"

"Yes, I'm here!" she cried in relief. She looked up at the monitor to see the Doctor's face filling the screen. "Where are you?"

"Aboard the Master's TARDIS," he told her. "Now listen, Jo, I need you to do something for me. We need both TARDISes to repair the rip. While I use the Master's TARDIS to create a time loop, I need you to do the same from mine."

Jo's eyes became huge. "Oh, but I can't possibly…" she protested.

"Yes, you can," the Doctor said. "And we need to do it quickly. Now move two steps to the right." Jo moved, and he continued. "You should see a set of colored buttons in front of you."

"No," she said. "It's all switches and dials."

"The girl is useless!" The Master's voice came through the speaker, heavy with contempt. "She moved in the wrong direction! How can she possibly handle the controls of the TARDIS if she doesn't even know her right from her left!"

Jo quickly moved the other direction and found the control panel the Doctor had described. "He's right," she moaned. "I am useless."

"Don't listen to him!" the Doctor told her sharply. "You can do this. I believe in you."

Jo nodded. "All right," she said. "What do you need me to do?"

"Each of us needs to program the commands into the TARDIS console at exactly the same time using the buttons I told you about. The buttons are in a five by five grid. Five buttons each in each row, and each row a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. Do you see them?"

"Yes."

"Now, I'll tell you which buttons to press: red-five, blue-three, yellow-two, and so forth. While we're doing that, the Master will tighten the time loop from here. Are you ready?"

A wave of anxiety overtook her, making her feel queasy. The colorful buttons seemed to swim in front of her eyes. But she was determined not to let the Doctor down. She forced herself to ignore her nervousness.

"Yes," she said again.

"All right, now! Green-four! Blue-five! Red-two!"

As the Doctor continued to shout out colors and numbers, Jo quickly pressed the buttons in front of her. Over the speaker, she could hear the engines of the other TARDIS begin to whine.

"It's not working, Doctor!" she heard the Master shout. "Tightening the loop from one TARDIS alone isn't enough!"

The Doctor's voice broke off.

"You need me to tighten the loop too, don't you?" Jo asked. "Tell me what to do."

The Doctor hesitated, but only for a second. "All right," he said. "You're going to need to finish typing in the last five commands and then go to the opposite side of the console and flip switches three, seven, and two, in that order. Then, from the same position, you'll have to spin the dial on the panel to your left counterclockwise. And you'll have to do it all within two seconds from the time you finish pressing the buttons. Ready?"

"Yes, Doctor, I'm ready," she told him with as much confidence as she could muster.

"All right, the last commands are green-two, blue-four, yellow-four, orange-one, and orange-five."

Jo pressed the buttons as rapidly as possible and then rushed to the other side of the console.

"Okay, now switches three, seven, and two and then spin the dial!" the Doctor shouted.

She quickly flipped the switches, and as she spun the dial, the TARDIS lurched. As the engines groaned, she grabbed onto the edge of the console to keep from flying across the room.

"It's not enough!" the Master shouted.

"Jo, spin it again, and then move two panels to the right and rotate the knob clockwise two and a half times!"

Jo spun the dial again and then moved to the other panel, stumbling as the TARDIS floor shook. With one hand firmly grasping the console, she rotated the knob with the other. The TARDIS lurched again, and the console shook so hard it threatened to fly apart. Jo stared in horror as a thin column of smoke rose from somewhere inside the control panel.

"Excellent, Jo!" the Doctor shouted over the sound of the straining engines. "Now one more thing. There's a button on the underside of the console, underneath the materialization lever. Press it three times."

She bent down to look. "Where is… Oh, I see it!" she shouted back.

As she made her way hand over hand around the console, the TARDIS rocked violently back and forth. She lost her grip and flew across the room, hitting the floor hard.

"Ow!"

"Jo, are you all right?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm fine!" she assured him, shouting to be heard over the din. She rubbed her right hip. "All that's hurt is my dignity!"

Jo tried to stand and again was flung to the floor. Realizing she wouldn't be able to walk across the room with the amount of shaking the TARDIS was doing, she slowly began to make her way back to the console on her hands and knees, slipping and sliding with every movement she made. Just as she was about to reach the console the floor tilted, and she slid back to where she had started.

Over the whine of the engines she could hear the sound of the Master's voice, deriding her. She ignored him.

"I can do this," she muttered to herself as she began to crawl again. "I can do this."

Finally after what seemed like minutes but was probably just a matter of seconds, Jo reached the spot under the console where the button was. She pressed it. Once. Twice. Three times.

The TARDIS stopped shaking, and the engines grew quiet.

"It worked!" the Doctor shouted. "And the loop is holding! You did it, Jo!"

Jo sank back against the base of the console, exhausted now that the ordeal was over. "Now we just have to figure out how to get me back," she said. With that, the sound of the Time Rotor moving came from somewhere over her head. She laughed. "Guess I'll see you in a minute, Doctor."

Back on the planet, both the Doctor and the Master were waiting for Jo when she emerged from the TARDIS. She ran to the Doctor and wrapped her arms around his middle. As he hugged her back, they both looked up. Overhead, the Time Rip had shrunk to a single line of fire. As they watched, it faded out of sight. Jo let out a sigh of relief.

"I was so scared," she said.

"I know," the Doctor told her. "But you did it anyway. And I'm so proud of you."

The Master groaned. "As heartwarming as this sight is, I think I'll go see if the Time Lords have released the controls to my TARDIS so I can leave. Doctor, I wish I could say it's been a pleasure."

"Yes," the Doctor responded as he let go of Jo. "Let's not do this again anytime soon."

The Master reentered his TARDIS, and the Doctor and Jo watched as it faded from sight.

"Well, they let him go," the Doctor said.

"And good riddance to bad rubbish," Jo added vehemently.

The Doctor chuckled. "And now I think it's time for us to go as well," he said as he offered her his arm. She looped her arm through his. "You know, before this all began I was going to tell you I think I finally fixed the dematerialization circuit. Fancy a trip to Ralicon, Jo? There's a little café there that makes the most wonderful cream teas…"

"…contact Miss Shaw. Maybe she can tear herself away from her research long enough to take the Doctor's place," the Brigadier said, staring at the empty space in the Doctor's lab that the TARDIS had occupied only moments before.

"Yes, sir," Benton replied.

"Tell her…"

Whatever the Brigadier wanted Sergeant Benton to tell Liz Shaw was forgotten as the sound of the TARDIS filled the room and it began to rematerialize in front of them. The Brigadier's mouth twisted into a small, self-satisfied grin.

"Ah, Doctor," he said as the door to the TARDIS opened. "I see you reconsidered."

"We're back at UNIT!" Jo exclaimed in surprise when she saw where they were.

"Oh, no," the Doctor groaned.

"Now about that speech to the Heads of State," the Brigadier continued. Benton and Jo snickered as the Brigadier took the Doctor's arm and led him from the room. "It doesn't need to be long. I imagine an hour or so should suffice…."


End file.
